granny

My sweet Granny went to be with our Heavenly Father on December 29th. At the young age of 78. She has been sick for a long time so honestly I'm really happy that doesn't have to live the way she was anymore. She rest her heart and lungs and watch us from above.

I can't help but remember so many wonderful things about her.

Every year for my birthday (without fail) I would get a card from a granny. Growing up I would receive a card with money in it. The amount was always based upon how old I was. At 10 I got 10 bucks. I always looked forward to it. This lasted until I was 21 when I graduated from the money program and just got a sweet loving card. After all, she did have 15 grandchildren and 3 great-grand children. We got expensive!

In the last few years we have turned into email buddies. I always knew she was just an email away. She LOVED my blog. She is one of the main reasons I blog. If I would miss days or weeks of no blogging you better believe my granny would email me and ask if everything was okay. I was usually sure to post something quickly after that.

She would also email me with great parenting advice. Shoot when she was my age she already 5 kids so she has been around the block a few times. She always made things sounds easy.

I'm just thankful that I've known her my whole life. She was an amazing mother of 8 children. I can't even fathom being a mother of 8. It really takes a special woman to do that!

Here are two of my favorite pictures.

Grace when she was itty bitty and Granny Brooks.

Four Generations: Granny, my dad, me and Grace. Sadly we never took one with Emma.

I was also thankful that last Monday night (the night before she passed) I was able to whisper in her ear how much I loved her and hold her hand while she rested. She was ready to go. I pray that when my time comes I can go as peacefully as she did.

Love you granny!

Christmas-time fun

Grace had a precious Christmas program this year. But wouldn't you know I pulled out my video camera only for the battery to die within 3 seconds of it being on. I was lucky I at least had my camera. Unfortunately we didn't really have a fabulous view despite the fact that we were sitting close. So the best picture was of Grace after the performance. She did so great. Huge improvement from last year. From my memory I believe last year she just hung out and watched all the bigger kids sing their little hearts out, but this year she actually sang all the songs and did most the hand motions. I can't wait until next year. I promise to be more prepared!

We have enjoyed a cold and snowy winter so far. It has snowed 3 times this December. We even got enough snow this last time that a few of our neighbors built snowmen. Emma was battling a cold so we stayed indoors and watched from our front window.
Still can't believe all the snow we got!

We also had a lot of fun doing other Christmas stuff.

One morning we baked cookies - which turned into an entire afternoon of icing and decorating. I think its sure to be an annual thing.

And to go with the theme of the month I forgot my camera for most everything else we enjoyed. We made a gingerbread house which turned into a bit of a disaster. We will attempt it again next year! We also headed to Northpark mall in Dallas and visited the trains. So cool. The girls loved it and I think Adam loved it even more. :) One night we headed to the Frisco fire department and walked around their little town were the girls got to drive a sleigh, get a Rudolph nose painted on, get a temporary tattoo, try on firemen gear and even drive the fire truck. So cool that they do that. We also enjoyed a couple nights of driving around looking at lights and lots of Christmas movies. I think at one point Adam has 10+ Christmas kids movies recorded. Grace loved everyone. Emma on the other hand still doesn't like tv.

What did you do with your family throughout the Christmas season?

Christmas 2009

Our Christmas usually starts on Christmas Eve. For years now we get together with my mom's side of the family for a big dinner. We don't do gift exchanges anymore since there are 40+ people in the family but its always a nice night of family, food and fun.

Here are all the little girls (my cousins) and my girls.

Grace and Emma and Audrey and Lexi. The big girls are 8 months apart (Lexi being older) and the little girls are just 2 days apart!

A cute snapshot of Daddy and his favorite hip-rider saying "cheese".

December seemed to skip past me and before we knew it we had the video camera and were recording as Grace walked down the stairs Christmas morning. There really is something cool about being up BEFORE your kids and being able to see their eyes light up when the see Santa visited them. I'm sure we only have a couple more years that our girls will be up before us, but it sure was nice to enjoy that this year.

The girls big gift was a trampoline from Adam's parents and boy do they love it. Too bad the weather has been SUPER cold otherwise we might be out enjoying it more. Hopefully warmer weather is to come.

Here is Adam lovingly putting the tramp together on Christmas Eve in a wet cold snow. I helped for bit, but then went inside to dry off by the fire. Oh how I love a fire on a cold day.

And here is the tramp on Christmas morning. Would you believe it snowed 3 times in December. This was the first white Christmas that Dallas has had since 1927! It was beautiful. Bummer we had to wait to enjoy the tramp. Plus Adam still had to add the safety sides. OH and did I mention we put it together wrong and Adam and had to take it all apart again! Ooops! Read ALL the directions when putting one of these together!

Santa brought Grace her beloved paints (aka watercolors) and a fun marble game, plus some fun stocking goodies - you know new undies and socks, new sunglasses, etc :)

Santa brought Emma lots of baby doll stuff. This girl really is my little mommy rocking all her babies to sleep and "shooshing" in their ears.

The girls also got a few things from us as well. Spoiled - never! :)

By 9am we were at my parents house opening gifts and enjoying a yummy breakfast. My parents got all the grand kids cute little chairs. The girls LOVE these chairs and drag them all over the house!

And finally a cute family shot. What more do I need on Christmas than a little family like this!This seriously is probably one of the only pictures of all 4 of us where everyone is smiling. Too bad Emma isn't looking at the camera, but it is cute none the less!

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well.

Christmas cards

My super cool neighbor took pictures of the girls this year for our Christmas cards and we are totally going to have him do it every year! The girls had a blast and we fell in love with all the pictures!!

"The one" - this is just so their personality. Smily and serious!

Christmas cuteness

I just wanted to get a few things down on paper before I forget them...

*After we finished decorating the house Grace informed me that I forgot to decorate her room. I felt so sad so I ran out to Walmart and got her little tree with lots of pink decorations! She loves it!

*After finishing the whole house and her room Grace said "Santa's gonna love it" - she was being VERY serious!

*Emma proclaims anytime she sees Santa. Yelling "Santa!" and followed by a "Ho Ho Ho". She has got it down!

*We have a house in our neighborhood that decorates their house like something out of Christmas Vacation... wow! It has everything from Santa and his reindeer, to lights, to carollers and even a full nativity. The girls love it. Really that is an understatement. If I drive past it too fast Grace will yell at me - "I didn't get to see baby Jesus!" Unfortunately for me this house is on the way in and out of the neighborhood so there is no avoiding it. So if you are neighbor and reading this - sorry if you get behind me, we have to take note of every piece of yard art before moving on.

check

Well I can finally check off that I have completed a half marathon. 13.1 miles done. And it couldn't feel better!

The entire race/run was amazing. It blew me away at the number of volunteers and police officers and spectators that were out there cheering for the runners. Pretty much the entire race there were people holding signs and cheering on strangers.

Mile 12 was a bit tough because I was pretty tired but somehow pushed through it. My chip time was 2 hours 24 minutes and 47 seconds. Just under an 11 minute mile. I was really just hoping for under 2:30, so I was happy with that. But would really like to be closer to a 10 minute mile since I know I can do that!

Thank you for all the encouragement and support during this training. I couldn't have done it without it!!! And to my sweet husband for coming home early, going into work late, and helping with the girls to make my training my possible. I couldn't have done this without you baby! Love you!

And yes I'm hooked - thinking my next race will be the Dallas Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon - March 14th. No desire yet to run a full marathon... but not ruled out either! :)

5 days...

Sunday is the big day. 13.1 miles here I come.

More later. We've been busy with Christmas shopping, running, planning Christmas parties, going to parties, etc. So much to update no time now.

I will update next week after the race. For now I'm tring to have a quiet week and rest for the big run!

Have a great week!!

ps... I'm done Christmas shopping!! Lots to wrap, but I'm done!!

Santa 2009

Surprisingly both girls were excited to see Santa this year. Grace was very excited and even told Santa she wanted some new paints for Christmas. Specifically watercolor paints. Hopefully she will be a good girl the next month and maybe Santa can afford a $3 set of watercolors. :)

Emma wasn't too sure what to think. She wasn't upset and that is what I was most happy about. I was expecting how Grace felt about Santa in 2006 & 2007. But we couldn't get a smile out of her either. Maybe next year? (Sorry for the poor picture quality - I had to scan in all these pictures b/c I'm too cheap to purchase the disk.)

Santa 2009

Santa 2008

Santa 2007

Santa 2006

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm most thankful for my two little turkeys!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

Christmas dresses

I was having a hard time finding dresses I really liked for Christmas. Really I was having a hard time finding one that I would spend the money on.

Emma has THREE hand-me-down dresses from Grace and a couple other little girls so I couldn't go out and buy one when I had THREE. Plus I bought the girls dresses a little big last year so they still fit! But of course I wanted something new :)

I decided to make the girls some pillowcase dresses. Really it doesn't get much easier than this. I basically just followed this video a friend found on youtube (thanks Tiffany!) and 2 hours later I had 2 dresses!

Oh and the best part is that they BOTH only cost me $12 bucks! I even have about half a yard of fabric left over. I just love this fabric. Still Christmasy (totally not a word) yet not red and green.

The fabric up close -

Visitors!

The Lada ladies came to visit us last minute. They are getting new flooring in their house and as you can imagine 3 little kids and a big mess don't mix well. So they decided to head to Dallas for a few days. Grace and Emma were so excited! Surprisingly the girls played very well together with only a few disagreements.

Emma, Avery, Grace and Molly - all watching a little tv before bedtime.

We even ventured out for one morning with all 5 girls. We even saw Santa - well sort of - no one wanted to get any closer than this. So we waved!
And everyone got haircuts. Hailey paid for her room and board by cutting Grace's and I hair and she even convinced me to trim a little off Emma's hair! She did great and sat very still! Hailey we will be due for haircuts again in another 2 months :)
And sweet Miss Presley. Somehow this was the only picture I snapped of her. She is such a laid back 3rd child. She never cries unless she is hungry and falls asleep wherever, as you can see in the picture below.
Thanks for visiting Ladas! We hope to see you again soon.

Grace's Thanksgiving feast

Grace had her Thanksgiving feast at her school last week. They prepared a special lunch and even got dressed up. Her class were little Indians and the other 3 year old class were Pilgrims. It was super cute. But I think the cutest was seeing all the kiddos say their prayers of Thanks before lunch. I just had to snap a picture.

My little turkey!

yum!

Prayers before eating.


My little Indian.

3 - 0

I officially turned the BIG 3-0 this past weekend. Do I look older? Don't answer that!

It was the best birthday I think I've ever had. We had some friends over for fajitas and margartias and it couldn't have been more perfect.

Even the weather was perfect - which in November in Texas is totally unpredictable. It was maybe in the 60's and clear. We ate and drank and really just hung out and caught up. The best part was is that all my friends came childless. If you have kids you know how big it is to have a night out without your little ones. It's huge! My girls went to my parents house (THANK YOU) and everyone else got babysitters. Thank you everyone for booking those babysitters to come and help me celebrate my birthday. It was so wonderful to chat and hang out and not have little children running and screaming and pulling at my pant leg. :)

So here are a few of the pictures from the night. Enjoy.

Ashley and I - one of my college roomies and my maid-of-honor! Love this girl!

Notice my awesome "30" glass! So cool. Thanks Melissa!

All my mommy friends plus a more!

Some of my sweet neighbors and friends. A few of the girls had already left to rescue their sitters.

And even Lola our neighbors sweet lab joined the party for some lovings. :)

Thanks again everyone for the sweet birthday wishes. It was a birthday to remember!!

My 12 Aggies

If you have a few minutes or 9 to be exact watch this video. I was a sophomore at Texas A&M when Bonfire fell. I wont ever forget that day or the days that followed. It fell in the middle of the night - 2:42 to be exact - and I was there looking at it at 6:30am. Standing and praying with 3 of my friends. I wont ever forget. 12 Aggies lost.

It's November

It's nearly halfway through November... how did it get to be the end of the year already.

It makes me happy because I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the friend, family and festivities that surround this time of year.

In the same breath it makes me sad because it means just after the Holidays my girls have a birthday.

Two and Four. Funny because when I see them like this I just think of them as babies. My babies forever!

Yes I'm totally that mom that starts thinking about their birthdays way in advance. Not sure why because I really don't do anything about it till after the Holidays. But I guess I just love thinking about and planning their special days.

**************

This weekend I will celebrate my 30th birthday. Normally I dread birthdays. It's not that I don't like getting older. In fact I'm glad I'm getting old. So much to look forward to. I think I just build it up to this amazing day and for some reason always feel let down. Again, I'm just weird around my birthday. Ask Adam, he knows what I am talking about.

SO.... for my 30th birthday I was determined to have a good day. So we are having a few friends over and having my favorite - fajitas and ritas. What else could make a birthday better? :)

**************

Lately we have been busy enjoying the beautiful weather. We have had some BEAUTIFUL weather here - highs in the 70's and clear sunny skies. It makes up for the very wet October we had. But really I'm ready for some sweater and scarf weather. I have so many cute scarfs that I'm dying to pull out!

**************

We have also been trying out some new hair styles for Grace. I've said it before but her hair is CRAZY. While I love her little ringlets, they are hard to manage.

So lately we have been doing lots of pig tails. Today Grace asked for braids. Well I can't do french braids (please someone help me, but I just can't get it tight enough), so I came up with next best solution - piggies with braids. Hard to see it in the picture, but she is so cute.

This is definitely my new favorite picture of Grace.

****************

And lastly, my littlest girl is so funny. She had just eaten some yogurt (that was red) and got it all over her face. I just thought it was cute and then she did this little head tilt thing. Grace has been doing it a lot for pictures so I'm pretty sure she thought it was the cool thing to do! HA! Already trying to be like her big sis.

Halloween 2009

Breaking news:

Our great friends, Meagan and Matt, are pregnant with TWINS!!!! I think I've talked about them a time or two, but we are thrilled for them! After all they have been through to get here, God has blessed them twice! Go tell them congrats here!

********************************************

Our Halloween was a blast.

We got our ballerina (per request) and our Aggie cheerleader ready and we were off for some fun!

First we headed to dinner at a neighbors 2nd Annual Halloween party. We ate yummy chili dogs and lots of other fixings and took lots of pictures.

Here are some of the kiddos. Maybe half? Have I said before that I love our neighborhood? :)



After some chit chatting and a full belly we were off to trick or treat.

First stop was back at our house to put out candy. Yup we just put out the whole bowl. But it was nice b/c we all got to go.




Grace knew just what to do. The funniest thing though is that when she went to each house she would say "Trick or treating" instead of "trick or treat". It was really cute b/c she kept doing it.

And Emma learned VERY quickly. Seriously what 19 month old baby knows what to do. Emma was happiest once she got a sucker. I was surprised b/c she walked the entire time. Turning into such a big girl. :(

And we ended the night at another neighbors house. They turned their garage into a fun Halloween tiki bar. With adult beverages and all - the witches brew was super yummy.

How was your Halloween?